Talk:Rodrigues pigeon

Contemporary descriptions

Contemporary descriptions, all that is known for this bird from life, would be a good addition to the article. The following was reverted:

Leguat described it as follows:

The pigeons here are somewhat less than ours and all of a slate colour, fat and good. They perch and build their nests upon trees; they are easily taken, being so tame, that we have had fifty about our table to pick up the melon seeds which we threw them, and they lik’d mightily. We took them when we pleas’d, and ty’d little rags to their thighs of several colours, that we might know them again if we let them loose. They never miss’d attending us at our meals, and we call’d them our chickens. They never built their nests in the Isle, but in the little islets that are near it. We suppos’d ‘twas to avoid the persecution of rats, of which there are vast numbers in this Island...

Quoting old texts has not been a problem at other good and featured articles before (see Mary Anning), including ones about extinct birds (Red Rail, Rodrigues Solitaire), and in a case like this, where most of the article would otherwise just be a close paraphrasing of old descriptions (as nothing else is known about the bird), I think the originals should be included. That it was all other secondary sources about these birds do after all. FunkMonk (talk) 19:12, 20 August 2012 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Do not include the full text of lengthy primary sources. I gave an link in explanation for removing the quotation in my edit summary. I think that MOS indicates that it would be better to paraphrase long quotations. Also it is in an old form of English and may not be readily understood all around the English speaking world. I do not know why long quotations slipped through at GA level recently, but it did not slip through on the Western Jackdaw nor Brown Thrasher pages. Snowman (talk) 19:24, 20 August 2012 (UTC)

Those are extant birds. Literature about extant birds do rarely quote descriptions (why should they?), but literature about extinct birds almost always quotes contemporary descriptions, if such exist. The two cases are incomparable. But let's keep the discussion over at Solitaire.[1] FunkMonk (talk) 22:18, 20 August 2012 (UTC)

I should note that there is of course a difference between an extinct bird which was never described from life by scientists, only laymen (such as the Red Rail, †1700), and more recently extinct birds (such as the Huia, †1907), which were extensively described by contemporary scientitsts. FunkMonk (talk) 23:19, 20 August 2012 (UTC)

References